To Happy Endings
by Shamrock Shannyn
Summary: Nightwing learns what would have happened to Batman had he not come into his life


Disclaimer: Batman and related characters are the properties of DC COMICS. This is an original fan fiction story, not written for profit, and not intended to infringe on their copyright.

Setting: Batman Animated Universe.

Time Frame: Shortly after Dick comes back to Gotham as Nightwing.

To Happy Endings

By: Shannyn Grayson Ivy

The grease in the frying pan decided to pop just as the toaster decided to burn the bread. As was the nature of things, the phone picked this time to ring repeatedly. Attempting to turn down the heat on the grease and unplug the toaster at the same time, Dick grabbed the cordless phone answering with an annoyed tone.

"YEAH."

"Dick? It's me."

"I know that. I've got caller id remember?"

"I need to talk to you."

Looking down at his overcooked eggs and burnt toast, Dick sighed. He didn't know if he would ever get the hang of cooking. Just another one of life's hassles, he mused.

"Dick?"

"What is it Bruce? Let me guess, you need help on a case."

Sarcasm dripped heavily from Dick's voice. A long silence told him he was on the right track.

"Sorry, I'm not your partner anymore, remember? You can't just call me up and expect me to drop everything and do your bidding. It doesn't work that way, at least not anymore. Hey, why don't you ask your new errand boy for help? What's his name? Jim or Dim or something..."

"Tim."

"Whatever."

The phone line went dead and the dial tone filled Bruce's ears for the fifth time in less than two months.

"Dick? Are you in here?"

Barbara Gordon's pleasant voice rang through the apartment. She knew he was home although he had been refusing to answer any phone calls.

An annoyed voice answered. "In here Barb."

Barbara walked through the cluttered apartment until she found him in a spare bedroom he had made into an exercise room. Lifting weights, he did nothing to acknowledge her arrival.

"You're not suppose to lift weights alone Dick."

"Thanks for the update mother."

Barbara looked down at her hands. They were shaking, but she would take her last breath before she would admit it to him.

"Is there a reason you're here?"

"Well, gee, Dick please don't attempt to spare my feelings."

"Okay, I won't."

Dick put the weights up and reached for a towel. Still he managed not to look directly at her.

"Look forget about us..." Barbara blurted out but was interrupted before she could finish.

"Oh, I already have sweetheart."

"That's not what I meant. I'm here about Bruce."

"Of course you are."

Dick threw his towel across the room and it landed perfectly into a laundry basket in the corner. Sitting down on the exercise bench, he looked at her fully for the first time.

"Well?"

"Dick you are hurting him deeply."

"Your point?"

"You are being a jerk."

"Okay and just how is that any of YOUR business?"

Dick stared her down, looking as cold as he could muster. He wished he hadn't seen the single tear drop that ran defiant from her pleading eyes. As she turned to leave she stopped and placed something on the table by the door. Dick made no attempt to stop her leaving, nor did he show any curiosity over what she had left for him. After he heard her drive off, he made his way to the table with a lump in his throat. There, on the table, was the end of all his hopes and dreams of being with her. There on the table, she had laid his class ring.

"Hi Mom and Dad. I'm sorry it's been so long. Working alone is keeping me on my toes, both day and night. I don't get much spare time these days."

Dick Grayson knelt on his knees before his parent's grave. Fiddling absent-mindedly with the arrangement of flowers he had brought, as he continued to speak with those he missed so much.

"There's only so much I can do. It's very frustrating. Sometimes I wonder if I'm really helping things at all…"

The winter wind gusts were approaching the twenty to twenty-five miles an hour range. The bright floral arrangement tipped over, with Dick catching it before it could break.

"Guess maybe this wasn't a good idea. Should have gotten a plastic vase."

Dick gingerly ran his fingers across the names on the tombstone. John and Mary Grayson, beloved parents. It had been so long ago and yet it still felt like it had just happened.

"I wonder what it would have been like, if you both had lived? I know we would have had some great times. I would give anything if it had gone that way, if we could have had a happy ending."

He sat quietly for a long while, reflecting on memories both good and bad with his mentor, the longing for his parents growing ever stronger.

"Of course that means I would never have met Bruce. Doesn't matter, it's not like I mean anything to him anyway. The few times he has said he cared was so forced that I don't really believe him. It's not like when you would tell me dad, remember? It's not the same. He never wanted to be my father anyway. He told me that from the very beginning. So why does it hurt?"

Laying the vase down so that it wouldn't fall, Dick continued to vent his frustrations.

"Alfred says that I, better than anyone, should be able to understand him. Truth is, I don't want to understand. I don't want to stop being angry with him for the birthdays he misses or for the fact he never has time for me. If I understand him, I'll have to forgive him. I'm just not sure I'm ready to do that. I guess that's pretty selfish of me huh?"

Dick crossed his arms around his legs and laid his head down on his knees. The physical and mental challenge of being alone in his quest as Nightwing was taking its toll. Hell bent on not asking for help, he was spreading himself to thin. He couldn't remember the last time he had more than three or four hours sleep. Sometimes that three hours sleep had to last him for two days, depending on the demands of his schedule. He felt himself relax now, which was a rarity in itself. Before he realized it, he was drifting off to sleep, despite the freezing temperatures, he felt warm and content next to his parents.

"Dick honey, did you remember the picnic basket?" A loving voice filled Dick's senses. He turned instantly to see who was there.

"MOM?"

"Don't forget the football. You and your father can play while I set up things up. This is going to be so much fun Dickie. Just like we used to, remember?"

Dick found himself reaching for her hand, relief at seeing her again overriding any questions at the moment.

Dick and his dad played football, while his mom set up a banquet full of all his favorite foods. They laughed and joked as they ate their fill of all the goodies. The happiness Dick felt was overwhelming. He felt so safe and loved and warm, so very warm. A question kept running through his thoughts, finally he asked his father.

"Dad, I thought, I thought you and mom were dead?" Dick's voice quivered; not at all sure he wanted the answer.

"You brought us back son. You decided you wanted to know what it would have been like if we had our happy ending. Well this is it."

John Grayson stood smiling proudly at his son. They shared the same hair color, complexion and general build but that's where the physical similarities ended. Dick's facial features and his outstanding blue eyes he had taken from his mother.

"The choice is yours now. You can stay here with us and we can have our happy ending, or you can return to a world without us."

"I, I don't understand. How is this possible?"

"If you decide to stay with us, then you will have to leave everything else that you know behind. To be more specific, you'll have to leave everyone else behind."

"I can't have both?" Dick's voice was full of tension. How could he choose between loved ones?

"No dear, you have to choose one ending or another and you must chose now." Mary Grayson's loving voice answered his question, confirming his fears.

"Wait, is there any way I can see what happens to Bruce if I'm not with him?"

"Does this matter to you?" Mary Grayson bluntly asked.

Dick sat quietly for a moment, coming to a decision all at once.

"YES. It means more to me than I ever thought possible. Please, could you show me?"

Dick watched in horror as the Gotham streets before him came to life. A gang was looting an appliance store and a terrified woman was being attacked in an alley. Dick ran to her, trying to stop her attacker. His actions were in vain however as he realized that he could not physical touch the people he saw here. As the knife entered the woman's stomach, Dick turned away, fighting back the urge to be sick.

"WHAT is going on here? Where are the police? Where's Batman?"

"You're wish was to see what life would have been like if we had our happy ending. This is present day Gotham."

"It can't be!"

"Crime is at eighty percent. Most of the good people have long since deserted this place."

"Not Batman, he would never leave Gotham!"

John and Mary Grayson exchanged looks with one another, as if unsure how to proceed.

"What are you not telling me? WHERE'S BRUCE?"

"Honey, I'm afraid the Batman has been dead for a long time now."

"NO!"

"He was killed just a few nights after the circus left Gotham, all those years ago."

Dick's face registered shock. This isn't what he had expected at all.

"How, how did he die?"

"He died trying to save a bus load of people from a group of terrorist."

"Tell me more, tell me all of it!" Dick's voice held an edge as he tried to suppress his emotions. Dick's mother understood his stress and put her arms gently around his shoulders as she tried to explain.

"Batman's parental concern for you taught him caution. That is something that without your presence in his life, he would never have adhered to. It was his lack of caution that night that brought about his demise."

"What do you mean parental concern? Bruce never thought of me as _his_ son." The hurt in Dick's voice was obvious even to his own ears.

"That is where you are wrong Dickie. From the first time Bruce Wayne held you in his arms, he considered you his own."

"Yeah, no offense mom, but you don't know him. He doesn't care about me."

"No offense my child, but I fear it is you who doesn't really know him. He has no one or nothing more special to his heart than you. The last two people he said I love you to, died in front of him. He has trouble voicing his love for fear of losing you. That is his greatest fear."

"I never knew."

"You do know Dickie, somewhere inside, you must know."

Dick searched his feelings. Was it true? Did he know that Bruce cared?

"You have a choice now Dick, you must decide. Will you come with us? Or will you stay with him?" John Grayson looked at him expectedly. As though this should be an easy question to answer.

Dick looked at his parents with sadness. Staying with them meant eternal happiness. Staying with Bruce, meant hardship. Bruce was not an easy man to love, but love him he did. Realizing this, his heart was heavy as he told his parents what he must do.

"I'm sorry. I can't leave him. He, he needs me. I guess whether I want to admit it or not, I need him too."

"You have chosen wisely Dickie. Do not feel sadness. We will be together again someday. On that day, we _will_ have our happy ending." Mary Grayson kissed her son tenderly.

"Mom? Wait! Mom!"

Dick felt his body being shaken hard. He fought to stay with his parents, the pain of losing them yet again, too much to take.

"Dick! Wake up! DICK!"

Batman shook Dick repeatedly, for fear that he might be too late to save the young man he considered a son. He placed his cape around him, pulling him into his arms to offer him warmth.

Dick became aware, slowly at first that Batman was speaking to him.

"Batman?"

"It's okay Dick, I've got you."

"What's wrong?" Dick's mind was still fuzzy as he tried to make sense of it all. He had a vague fleeting memory. The more he concentrated on it, the more it tried to elude him.

"Dick you almost froze to death! It's below freezing out here and you feel asleep. You're as cold as ice! Can you move your fingers and toes?"

The concern deep in Batman's voice surprised Dick.

"Yeah, I'm okay. What are you doing here?"

"This is part of my nightly rounds."

"Oh."

After an uncomfortable silence, Nightwing decided it was his turn to try to make peace.

"You still need help on that case?" Dick surprised himself by asking.

Batman stared at him as if wondering what the punch line was going to be. When he concluded that Nightwing's offer was a sincere one, he smiled.

"My most pressing case is a pan of Alfred's hot fudge brownies. I need your help, uh, dissecting them. Are you interested?"

Nightwing caught himself laughing at Batman's lame attempt at humor.

"Are you kidding? No way am I going to let renegade brownies run amok in Gotham City."

"My thoughts exactly!"

"Batman, you think we could take some by Barb's house? She's the best, uh, dissector I know."

"Let's do it partner."

Reaching for Nightwing's hand, Batman pulled him up. Dick took another look at his parent's grave. Kissing his hand, he touched their names one last time before leaving.

"To happy endings." He whispered.


End file.
